How To Build an Acoustic Guitar Episode 16 (Voicing the Back Braces)

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In this video, Chris demonstrates how to voice the braces on the back of the 3,000 year old guitar.

[@FingerstyleGuitardcksn]

I'm excited to here the sound of this guitar.

[@Relyfew]

hear*

[@FingerstyleGuitardcksn]

I just realized that I misspelled it hahahaha

[@tranquilitybase6417]

You hear it better by putting your ear here.

[@larscw74]

The difference in sound when you play sitting or with a strap tells you already how much the back influences the sound. There will always be people who know everything better, just let them be and know it better. You know what you're doing. I have to say that your method looks a lot easier to do compared to the other tuning methods. Thanks for sharing this.

[@thebigswede1736]

A 2.5mm thick acrylic template would protect the center strip AND give a reference for the ends of the braces.

[@crispytech9182]

Since I started watching you channel. I have definitely looked at the construction, and details of my acoustics that I've purchased.

[@Lonnie.Macs.Garage]

Excellent! Throw Er Down brother! I can't wait to hear it sing.

[@jodalry]

Hi Chris, really enjoying the series. Regarding your comments about voicing the top only - I watched an interview with Paul Reed Smith in which he talked about his acoustic guitar range. He alikened the way he builds his acoustic guitars to a speaker whereby the back and sides are essentially the cabinet and the top is the speaker cone. Sounded like a great analogy to me. What do you think? 😎👍🏻

[@TyphonKrazilec]

at 6:51, the word for that is "ogive". Reminds me of gothic cathedrals ;) For the scratches and the gliding of the hand plane, did you try the mylar foils? I saw Dan Erlewine using some when he needed protecting surfaces and it looked very strong and gave the ability to slide very well.

[@sigfreed11]

I’m so excited for the driftwood-ish strat guitar and I can’t even afford to enter the raffle! You’re clearly doing something right keeping up the anticipation for it haha 😂

[@DriftwoodGuitars]

We now sell hand selected and resawn Tonewoods on our website! Each piece was found by Chris Alvarado, and almost always has a story to go along with it. Go check out the selection at www.driftwoodguitars.com/tonewood

[@gersonmoraol]

Congrats again!

[@hartleyshandcrafted]

chriiiiis!!! back toooooone!!!! this is your mother speakiiiiing!!!

[@KeyserTheRedBeard]

interesting video Driftwood Guitars. I shattered that thumbs up on your video. Keep on up the exceptional work.

[@karelenhenkie666]

Thats what happen with sawn braces versus split braces. If you split your bracing it should chisel and plane evenly on both sides and when its sawn theres almost always going to be runout, no matter the supplier. Usually not that big of a deal but if you want the best results its best to always make your braces from split billets

[@donaldholman9070]

Blue tape should Spencer’s you. Thank you for sharing!

[@enchantederic3792]

If you play around with your hand position on that hand plane, kinda in the sense of guitarists 'palm muting', you can let your "back of hand, fingers' knuckles, etc." GUIDE YOUR HAND PLANE, saving the tape step. I would do some dry passes to consider stroke, and in this case, position of how i hold plane, using guitar back and back strap as my "Guides", before beginning. Where did you buy your back and side sets, if I may ask?

[@dalgguitars]

Thank you so much for your videos. Really. thanks so much!

[@SkyscraperGuitars]

As always, great info.

[@lancewiggains9590]

Have you ever tried bracing a guitar with the gore gillet method? With the curved half circle braces? What do you think about those?

[@mjc4art]

Don’t mind Charlie chewing on my sons car seat, it’s fine, it’s totally fine, doesn’t bother me at all, it’s fine… hold on 😂

[@Apillicus]

An interesting way to tell that the back contributes to the tone is you tune the guitar. Tune it while it's laying on its back, then check it on its side. You'll be a bit flat

[@nickhewett8815]

Sorry to 'that guy' Cris, but I have to ask; why don't you pre-shape the brace profiles before glueing them on? The obvious answer is so that the go-bars have a flat surface to press on but I know that's not a major problem for someone of your template making abilities. 😉

[@gavinhutton8455]

what if i dnt even have the money to support u guyz?? but i do watch every video of yours , my fav channel

[@DriftwoodGuitars]

We’re actually going to have an opportunity for you soon! Stay tuned, and we appreciate you watching!

[@ErnieB]

Matt's Greyhound is named Ernie! Almost never do I run into another person with my name. Since I like dogs more than most people... Way cool, Matt! Can your buddy, Ernie, get some face time? I'd love to see him. Okay, so Chris bevels purfling with a chisel on the outer surface of the unprotected back, but he covers the back strap with tape 'cause he bangs into them with a plane??? Chris, given that you use a template for the ladder brace spacing, couldn't you just cut a set of acrylic strips, one to fit each gap, in order, with a dado on the underside? Just lay them in, and pick them up when you are done. They don't have to be any much longer than the tape. You'd want to bevel the ends so that the plane doesn't crash into the end. You can't have too many templates, right? lol

[@DriftwoodMatt]

Absolutely! He was a little camera shy today, but I’ll make sure and get some video of him soon :)

[@ErnieB]

@@DriftwoodMatt Thanks! I look forward to it.

[@ClaytonwFirth]

It would be great to get a look at him Matt! Fellow greyhound owner here.

[@Aurelian76]

Hi there guys. Is that a Bridge City HP-8 plane? Cheers

[@DriftwoodGuitars]

It sure is.

[@thierryloison2875]

What kind of truss rod do you use for your neck ?????

[@michellek5789]

Hi what plane is that you are using pleas?

[@GravelRacer1]

I get a tear in my eye when you don't put your planes down on their side.

[@IgorTryp]

Engineering isn't about making things strong, it's about making things light.

[@russellscott1151]

Surprised you don’t round off the sides of your back strap before putting the braces on. Not that it makes any real difference. Just that it looks neater I think. All good stuff, thanks.

[@ryanmckichan7630]

When you say Matt is a student of grain direction, a cool video would be to teach us like you are teaching him. Grain can be confusing for me .

[@mjcooperer]

What size ibex is that?

[@rodparker4514]

What to do if sounds worse then when you started ?

[@DeuCeNTX]

dang.... the wood whisperer lol

[@DriftwoodMatt]

First!

[@bpower6362]

not sure that counts matt. :)

[@DriftwoodMatt]

Hahaha I know, just wanted to see what all the hype was about.

[@Espjr215]

Ernie the instigator...

[@ozamora76]

Just one doubt… why don’t you do that before gluing the braces to the back?

[@YegresAL]

There're two main reasons - its easier to glue square braces and there's no risk to damage ready braces top. And anyway after glueing you will need to finalise braces with sanding. Nevertheless, quite often braces are pre-shaped roughly before glueing, but never finished.

[@arkadyromanov7803]

If the back of an acoustic made no difference then a mahogany and rosewood backed guitar with the same top would sound the same, but they don't (even more than the difference between acoustics in general) and you might as well make them out of balsa. 🤷

[@stevedimebag]

Let’s not beat around the bush…u think that the whole frequency matching method is nonsense 🤨 “Shots fired”

[@IainHC1]

Please please lay your plane to rest in its side so you don't damage the blade!! And..... Why are you keeping your dogs apart?

[@Hofmeister.Guitars]

Hahaha, you mean the blade that is moments away from being picked up and repeatedly rammed into very dense wood?!

[@matthewzadeh1]

Excessive laughing. Tasteless jokes.

[@DriftwoodGuitars]

That should be the name of our channel! Great idea.